Chapter 1010: I was the one who hit you just now

The lights were turned on. Before Megure could press the sweating Takagi, Conan took the initiative to step forward and said, "Sorry, Inspector Megure, I was the one who hit you just now."

"Huh?" Megure exclaimed, looking down at Conan, "What kind of silly talk is that, Conan? You weren't holding a stick!"

To be able to admit to hitting someone so righteously—this kid really knew how to joke.

"Inspector Megure," Akaso Kaze walked into the room from the balcony and explained to Megure on Conan's behalf, "It was indeed Conan, it's just that the stick has already flown outside now. To be precise, it wasn't a stick, but an umbrella."

"An umbrella?" Inspector Megure was completely confused.

"That's right, just like at the time of the crime, the experiment was very successful."

Conan said excitedly, "First, prepare a long rope, tie a heavy object in the middle, tie a slipknot that is easy to slide open at one end of the rope, hang the slipknot on the tip of the hour hand of the large clock outside, let the tied heavy object cross the balcony railing and hang down below, and pull the other end into the room through the window gap."

"When the lights are turned off to blow out the candles, tie the pulled-in rope to the umbrella handle. The moment the candles are blown out, use the umbrella to hit the Inspector. Afterward, the umbrella will be pulled out because the heavy object falls. That's roughly how it is."

"But can this succeed? Although I didn't see it just now, someone at the birthday party would definitely have discovered the rope on the balcony." Megure rubbed his head gloomily.

Even so, there was no need to hit his head, right?

"Of course, in reality, the culprit should have used something like fishing line that is harder to be discovered," Conan's gaze swept over the bearded man and the others.

"The large clock outside is right above the balcony. There is a ring-shaped gap on the hour hand. When it points straight down to 6 o'clock, the rope tied to it will fall off very quickly."

"As for why the murder weapon and the heavy object couldn't be found, they should have fallen directly into the well below. As long as you extend the rope, it's very easy to do."

"Then," Megure asked suspiciously, "what about the bloodstains? The culprit stabbed the victim in the chest. It couldn't be that after stabbing, they immediately moved behind the victim to control the victim and used the force of the falling heavy object to pull out the murder weapon, right? If it was just stabbing the victim in the chest, it would be plausible because the chest had a necklace coated with fluorescent paint, but it's impossible to move flexibly in the dark, and besides..."

"No, the murderer couldn't have used the heavy object to pull out the murder weapon. If they carried too large a heavy object, it would be easy to be discovered, so the culprit pulled out the murder weapon by hand. And the reason they weren't splattered with blood all over is because..."

Conan's gaze landed on the bearded man, Keibe Sadago.

"Before revealing the reason, we can first figure out who the murderer is."

"Can we know directly?" Megure was bewildered.

"Yes, the key is the bloodstains," Conan explained, "The only ones stained with blood are Mr. Keibe and a few others, specifically Mr. Keibe, whose hands and cuffs were stained because he approached the fallen victim after the incident; Ms. Suo, whose arm brushed against the bloodstains; and Old Man Furugaki, whose shoulder was splattered with bloodstains."

"The old man was standing next to the Lady, so it's not strange that he was splattered with blood. The bloodstain on Ms. Suo's arm was probably brushed against while the murder weapon was flying toward the balcony. Then, I would like to ask Mr. Keibe, how did you approach the Lady to leave such bloodstains?"

Conan looked quietly at Keibe Sadago's trembling hands.

"Hands and cuffs—could it be that you pressed directly onto the Lady's bleeding chest? Even so, how could your clothes and pants not be stained with even a little blood? With such a large amount of bleeding, it's also strange that you didn't step in the blood."

"So there is only one reason: the reason your hands were stained with blood is because you directly held the murder weapon!"

"What?" Megure said in astonishment, "Mr. Keibe is the murderer?! Then what is the murder weapon?"

"Didn't I say it just now? It's an umbrella. It's just that he used a folding umbrella, which can be hidden in his bosom to commit the crime more conveniently without being discovered."

Conan made his final deduction.

"This can also be guessed a little from their testimonies. Big guy, fatty, fast speed, fabric friction—actually, they were all talking about the murder weapon. Being big enough to block the splattered blood for the butler was because the umbrella was opened. The culprit also used this method to avoid the bloodstains."

"I think it should be that a sharp murder weapon was attached to the tip of the umbrella, and then he stabbed the Lady while holding the umbrella. When he pulled it out, all the blood was blocked by the umbrella. The reason Mr. Keibe's hands were stained with blood is because he was in a hurry to fold the umbrella. To save time, he probably even used something like a rubber band tied to his wrist."

Conan walked past the trembling, distracted bearded man and said, "To be able to do these things, one must be very familiar with this place. As the designer of this villa, you wouldn't even need to experiment to know how long the rope needed to be. And I heard that you even borrowed a pocket watch from the Lady during the party to look at it; it's very easy to set it a few seconds fast to create time for the crime."

"The reason you took the initiative to help with the investigation earlier is probably because it started raining outside again, and it would be very difficult to leave, right? Can you tell me, where is your umbrella?"

Thanks to 13906.. for the monthly ticket.